September electric bills dropping

Closure of San Onofre plant returns past costs

Southern California Edison customers will see lower bills beginning in September. Late last month, the California Public Utilities Commission approved the final settlement regarding what SCE customers are owed as a result of the closure of the San Onofre nuclear plant, on the beach near Pendleton in San Diego County.

Emails have already begun to notify customers who have provided email addresses to SCE.

That decision will provide both a short-term and continuing reduction in electric bills. First will be “a one-time refund of about $11 per average residential customer and $6 for an average customer participating in the California Alternate Rates for Energy assistance program to offset revenues collected since last December,” according to the SCE press release.

This is a one-time credit and will only apply to the September electric bills.

Going forward, there will be a 2-percent reduction in rates, “which equals about $2 per month for an average residential customer and $1 for an average CARE customer.” This is a permanent rate reduction, said Liese Mosher, principal manager, Communications.

Rate reductions for non-residential customers will vary depending upon a number of factors, said SCE President Ron Nichols in the press release.

The total rate reductions under the approved settlement — $775 million of which $155 million is the refund amount — are in addition to the more than $2 billion in customer savings under the 2014 settlement that was modified by the commission’s July 26 action.

Had this recent settlement not been reached, customers would have been paying for the San Onofre nuclear generating station through January 2022. Beginning in February 2022, SONGS would have been removed from rates.

SCE retired San Onofre units 2 and 3 in June 2013 after a contractor provided faulty steam generators.